Ultimate Showdown
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: ·Slight AU· ·Oneshot· ·Jing: King of BanditsYGO· Yami Bakura is best known as 'Thief King'. But what happens when the treasure that he is about to steal is going under the same plans? On the same night? By someone who calls himself 'King of Bandits?


I was kinda miffed when I found out that my now favorite manga didn't even have a category. And that as far as I can tell, there is only two Jing fanfictions in existence. Ah well, at least I came up with this idea.

If you've read Jing: King of Bandits, good on ya! If you haven't, read it! It's got action, romance (though in small parts) and of course stealing. I can't say anymore apart because if I did, I'd probably give something away.

Anyway, I've want to thank Aymeleh for being my beta-reader for this.

So that should be everything except I'm writing this from the manga so some of the stuff which I write might be slightly different from the animé.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Ultimate Showdown**

By Dark Ice Dragon

That's mine!

* * *

_'Bakura…you're not going to try anything tonight are you?'_ Ryou asked warily, on the verge of falling asleep. 

_**'What do you mean by that?'**_

_'Bak-ur-aa!'_ Ryou whined.

The spirit sighed within his soul room. _**'Okay, fine. I won't try to do anything all right?'**_

Ryou was just awake to hear that before falling under the spell of night.

:-:-:  


  
'_Heh. These museums always hold treasures but they never have a proper security system._' 

While the first statement was true, the second wouldn't be, not for normal humans anyway.

Bakura thought about the words he had said to his other half earlier that night. '_I won't try to do anything._' He snorted. He couldn't believe that anyone could be so gullible. If the 'Thief King' wanted something, no one could stop him. No one. Especially napping boys.

Bakura silently padded along the marble floors, nearing his destination with every step.

'_How ironic. They have defences on every little thing but press the right switch and everything turns itself off. How…convenient._' At that point in time, all of the guards were trapped in a room in total darkness -most likely unconscious. It wasn't that hard to hack into defenses of the protection systems. Not that he blamed them for trying.

Much.

But still, a person was allowed to ask for a challenge wasn't he?

Because his other self was soundly sleeping, Bakura indulged in the paintings and sculptures as he passed by them. It wasn't that he was interested, well, slightly, but it was only so he could see how present day humans interpreted life and death. Yeah, that was it. How they interpreted life and death.

The signs on the walls told of how close Bakura was to his treasure. Not that he needed to look at them since he had memorized the blue prints of the building. Even if he hadn't taken out the cameras, laser beams, pressure panels etc., Bakura had seen far to many flaws in how they planned their so-called 'thief proof' layout.

The spirit was grinning in apprehension as he got closer and closer to the end of his goal. But as he was practically at the door of the soon to be his treasure, he noticed that that the door was unlocked and open. Not ajar, the double doors were so wide apart that from his vantage point, Bakura couldn't see the doors.

'_They forgot to lock their doors? Of all the doors they had to forget, it had to be this one._' Now they were just asking to get stuff stolen.

'_What the-?_' Hearing a soft sound echoing through the building, Bakura automatically pressed his back onto the wall. It sounded like it came from the open doors. The strange thing was, that it sounded like it was flapping wings. A bird trapped inside, perhaps? But the windows were always shut securely. Unless you were a thief of course. It sounded bigger than what the windows would allow in anyway.

"Kir, would you stop moving and flapping?" a voice asked, absent-mindedly.

There was someone else in the room? But the blueprints said nothing of a guard in any of the rooms. They were all supposed to be stuck in their security room where everything was controlled by electricity. Too bad the door wasn't open when the power cut out. Did they have any windows in that stuffy room? Bakura brushed this thought away. '_Did one of them leave to look at the artifacts?_' Could it be…? No. No one would dare try to take the Thief King's spoils!

"I can't see why you don't just break the glass; it won't scratch it. The faster you can get this, the faster we can get out of here. I like treasure and all, but I would prefer to be in a woman's company than pieces of stone with only the head that's female," came another voice.

Bakura was silent as he heard the words. Not a guard. A thief, like him. Two by the sound of it, but why bring a bird? That would only defeat their cause since the thing wouldn't be able to keep quiet.

The fastest way to get rid of them would be through the Millennium Ring. Less messy as well. No one would care if another two people went missing, especially if no one knew that they were supposed to be there. The bird wouldn't be too hard to shut up either; it would only be in a cage after all.

Peering around the corner, Bakura saw something slightly different from what he was expecting; instead of two people, all he saw was a boy and a crow –wearing a scarf!- flying above his head. The boy had his back to him but Bakura could see his bright orange trench coat in the dim lighting. He also had black hair in the same kind of style as Yugi but not so clean cut and with as many colors. There was a grey bag by his feet. What the boy was facing was the same thing that Bakura himself had gone to the museum to get.

But where was the second person? Was the other guy wandering around? He had to be. Where else could he be?

"But where would the fun be in that? C'mon Kir, you have to admit that this is one of the easiest heists we've done. Including getting the Double Mermaid."

Hearing this statement, Bakura growled softly. This child, was trying to steal _his_ treasure from underneath _his_ nose from _his_ work. Bakura presumed that it was because of his disabling the alarms that the brat was able to get inside. Anyone, who brought a live animal while working, in this kind of profession, had to be an amateur. His Duel Monsters didn't count. He could control them. And what was the Double Mermaid? There wasn't any treasure called that...Well, _well known_ treasure called that.

And why was the kid talking to the bird and not his –human- partner? It's not as if the dumb animal could talk back. So why did the boy talk to it like it would understand him? It was like the boy thought that the bird talked and no one else was there. Was someone watching over him? Or was the bird and the human called by the same name?

"So hurry up then!"

That couldn't be right. The voice really did sound like it was coming from the bird. Studying the shadows across the room, Bakura couldn't see any that was out of place. Though that didn't mean no one was there. It was either that, or the crow was actually a parrot.

Deciding enough was enough, Bakura stepped out of his hiding place. "Yes. Do hurry up, so I can take it from you!"

The kid stiffened and whirled around. Without the boy saying a word, the bird flew down and landed on his shoulder. There was nothing in the way from the door to the artifact so Bakura could clearly see what the boy looked like: he had grey eyes that were widened in surprise and underneath the trench coat was all black. A black vest, black trousers and black shoes. The only thing that wasn't black was the bat-like buckle that reflected the moonlight.

The bird opened it's mouth. "It looks like we aren't the only ones after it, Jing." Must be a parrot. No bird can lip-sync. Never seen a black parrot though. Or one wear a scarf for that matter.

"Hey." The boy waved his hand. "Since you know our names, why don't you tell us yours?"

Bakura struggled to keep his face straight. The boy was polite! Sure, you could get charming thieves, but polite? Now that's what you call rare. "You can call me Bakura, brat," he snarled.

"Brat?" Jing muttered. "Aren't we about the same age?" Every word was heard in the silent room.

The Thief King snickered. "We may _look_ the same age but I can assure you, our ages are no where near each other." He walked towards the boy, who in turn, backed off to the side. '_At least he has a sense of distance if there was a fight._' But then the boy surprised him.

Jing rushed towards Bakura (the bird had flown off somewhere). Reacting to that, Bakura jumped to the side, as did Jing. Both of them were now an equal distance away from 'their' treasure, facing each other.

The boy tilted his head. "Since we both want it as much as the other person-"

"-Why don't we fight for it?" Bakura finished, a feral grin on his face. He considered using the Millennium Ring again but if he did, his treasure could end up being sucked into the Shadow Realm as well.

As if on a signal only they could hear, they both ran at each other at the same time. Bakura brought out one of his daggers and swung it vertically at Jing's head. At the same time, Jing released his own dagger from underneath his trench coat sleeve to block the oncoming blow. Again they attacked each other. This time it was Jing who attacked -Bakura's midsection- and Bakura had to duck and roll to the side to get away. Still crouching, Bakura then sweeped his legs underneath Jing's to trip him up. Except Jing had back-flipped to safety.

Bakura wasn't quite sure why, but he had started to feel a little light-headed. He also felt like he was missing something. Ignoring this, Bakura started to laugh and straightened so that he was standing again. "Call yourself a thief, Jing?" he sneered. "You couldn't even stop me from stealing this!" he brought up a hand that held a blue crystal. Within its centre was a head of a woman with her eyes closed.

Jing didn't seem very impressed. "So why don't we trade since I've got this?" He in turn, held something up. Bakura saw gold. A gold circle. A gold circle with a pyramid in the middle. Then everything turned black.

:-:-:

"Jing, how did you do that?" Kir asked, after seeing the boy blackout.

The King of Bandits was silent as he studied the boy in front of him. When Bakura had fainted, Jing noticed that the most of the hair that had been spiked up suddenly tamed itself. He looked the gold ring. Did this have anything to do with it? Probably.

He sighed. "I didn't do anything. Not for that intention anyway." He gestured at the unconscious Bakura.

"So why did you _both_ find it necessary to steal from each other while fighting?"

Again Jing didn't answer: he was placing that ring back around Bakura's neck. He then took back what was his.

So in the end, they traded.

Kir looked on curiously. "Why are you doing that?" he asked.

"I think this ring is like the coins we found at Morte Calon."

Hearing this statement, Kir's eyes bulged. "This guy is a _zombie_! Then why are you giving it back to him! He's just going to try and kill us again. And he _won't_ die!" he ranted.

Jing shook his head. "Grappa's dead so this isn't the same thing. I'm guessing that this ring holds a spirit."

"Possession?" Kir asked incredulously.

He nodded. Then he smiled. "C'mon, we're going to have to hurry, before Bakura wakes up."

Throughout the entire museum, the words, "That's what I've been saying from the start!" echoed and bounced off the walls.

:-:-:

Bakura groaned as he opened his eyes. They then snapped open when he remembered how he had ended up on his back. How long had he been like this for? How had he gotten back?

His hand instinctively flew to his chest. Cold metal. Did the boy know?

He didn't have the crystal anymore so he swapped them? What kind of thief was he? Raising his eyes he saw that the display was empty.

There was no one in si- "Jing, stop walking and start running! He's going to wake up soon!"

He was on his feet immediately. From the sound of it, they were still in the corridor. Bakura smirked.

Because the builders of the museum wanted to make sure everyone saw everything, they made the building so that on one side of the corridor stairs were going down and on the other side the stairs only went up. The pair had nowhere to go apart from up.

The treasure would be his!

Bakura raced out of the room and continued to run. There was no point in being quiet if the guards were all in the one place. He had kept quiet before, just in case there was still someone out. If that were the case, that bird's squawking would have alerted them to that floor.

Next floor up, no one in sight. None of the doors or windows were open. Bakura grinned. There wasn't another floor up, only the roof. The big flat roof. The only way down would be to fall.

Not a bad idea.

Pushing the door with a bang, Bakura instantly saw Jing. He had his back to him and one of his feet was on top of the step at the edge of the roof. From the looks of things (and the way he was tilting), it seemed like Jing was trying to gauge the distance from the roof to the pavement below.

The museum had seven floors.

Jing slowly turned around. "Glad to see that you're well."

Having enough of pleasantries, Bakura snarled, "Give me it!" To hell with losing it to the Shadow Realm! The Thief King wasn't about to watch someone –especially a snot nosed kid- take away his treasure right in front of him and get away with it!

:-:-:

Seeing the light condense around the gold ring and begun to turn green, Jing called out, "Kir!" In a flash (literal and metaphorical) Kir appeared and strapped himself and Jing's right arm.

:-:-:

He was too angry to notice that the boy had called out to the bird. He was too angry to notice there was a flash of white light. He was too angry to notice that the bird had turned into a skeleton (that was black though it still had feathers on its head and it's scarf) and the ribcage slid onto the boy's right arm. He did notice, however, when the boy shouted,

"KIR ROYALE!"

Having this as a warning, Bakura sent his own blast of Shadow magic at the fast approaching balls of light.

The resulting explosion made Bakura have to cover his eyes with his arms and to make sure that no dust got into them. After the light show had ended and the dirt had settled, the coast was clear of the brat.

With a snarl, Bakura ran to the edge. Underneath him, he could see an orange something running away. By the museum doors were the remains of the long banners: they had a vertical rip from top to bottom.

Bakura blinked. No. It couldn't be. He looked at his hand. Inside his fist was the reason he had gone to the museum. Beside it was a note.

_You need this more that I do_

_-King of Bandits_

How had the kid done that? How come he didn't notice when he had done that? He called himself 'King of Bandits' does he? Bakura smirked. It was truly a worthy name for him.

'_I got what I came for. Time to go home._'

:-:-:

"I can't believe you gave it back!" Kir shouted as he flew overhead. "We go through all that trouble of dodging the lasers and cameras and then you give it away! Jing, what's_ wrong _with you?"

Jing just smiled as he ran. "Some people need to have hope in their lives," he replied enigmatically.

"Hope?" Kir repeated. "Is that what the hieroglyphs said?"

"Yep."

The crow sighed. "So what did we get out of this? Nothing. Not even a woman."

"Cheer up Kir. The next place where we're going is called the City of Angels."

"City of Angels?" Kir echoed. "Where women have wings! Jing, what are you doing running so slowly! Let's go!"

:-:-:

The next morning, the Thief King was awakened by the cries of:

"BAKURA! You went out again!"

* * *

And I'm done. What did you guys think? 

If you want some things explained in this, just e-mail me or review and I'll get back to you. I don't want to say it here in case you people want to read/watch it for yourselves.

Though about the Grappa and Morte Calon thing. What basically happened there was that it was a casino where it was the money that controlled the people and not the other way around. Jing and Kir had Kir Royale-ed someone and blew a hole through the body and the guy was still alive and kicking. The only way to kill them was to take a special kind of coin that the guy was holding.

Also, if you know what Kir is like with the ladies, I'll have you know that I was actually considering making Kir fall for Bakura until they found out he was a guy, but I just couldn't do it. It would have been way too cruel on Bakura.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this.

Dark Ice Dragon


End file.
